Bugs piled up months before SAAQclic launch, auditor testifies

Montreal Gazette

29-05-2025

Quebec Politics
A few months before the SAAQclic platform went live, bugs were piling up, according to a former internal auditor at the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), who predicted a launch similar to the 'Grands feux Loto-Québec' (Loto-Québec fireworks).
Former auditor and IT specialist Vincent Poirier began his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the Gallant Commission, which is investigating the SAAQ's failures in its digital transformation.
Poirier reported on the testing period that preceded the SAAQclic rollout in February 2023. During the summer and fall of 2022, more than 100 'critical' anomalies were detected daily. Development teams were resolving approximately 30 to 40 of these issues per day.
Nevertheless, bugs were piling up, Poirier told Commissioner Denis Gallant.
'You have to understand that a lot of them were fixed and a lot of them were activated. The pool of unfixed anomalies, as I recall, was at least 1,200,' meaning 'unwanted behaviours that are detrimental to services,' Poirier explained.
Despite persistent difficulties, the green light was given to launch 'production,' thus ending the testing period, said the man who is now a software architect at the Ministry of Public Security.
When his boss in internal auditing asked him during this same period how the platform's deployment was shaping up, Poirier said he gave him this image: 'We're going to see the Great Loto-Québec Fireworks. It's going to explode everywhere.'
'All the elements led me to believe it wouldn't work. I couldn't say how bad it was,' said Poirier, who worked for a few months in the CASA project office, which includes SAAQclic, before joining the internal audit team from 2021 to 2024.
The failed rollout of SAAQclic caused huge queues outside SAAQ branches. The government corporation's technological modernization project could cost at least $1.1 billion by 2027, $500 million more than expected, according to the auditor-general.
In the field in the fall of 2022, Poirier recalled encountering IT workers who were 'exhausted' or even 'in tears' at the scale of the problems.
Poirier's testimony is scheduled to continue Thursday morning.
'History proves us right'
Earlier Wednesday, Poirier's former boss concluded his testimony before the commission. Daniel Pelletier, former director of internal audit at the SAAQ, proposed some possible solutions to improve the governance of the Crown corporation.
One of his recommendations aims to reduce the many responsibilities under the Vice-President of Information Technology.
At the time he held this position, Karl Malenfant was responsible for the CASA/SAAQclic IT project. He was also responsible for human resources, as well as material and real estate resources, following a reorganization in 2020.
'That's a lot of responsibilities in the hands of one person,' Pelletier said.
Many of the tasks grouped under these roles are 'incompatible,' Pelletier emphasized. He said the responsibility of a major projects office, such as the one for the development of the SAAQclic platform, 'should be somewhat removed' from the VP of IT, and 'add a touch of independence.'
The retired accountant also submitted a proposal about appointing members to the board of directors. Pelletier how some directors wouldn't listen to and were hostile toward internal auditors during the CASA project.
'The auditors, we were their eyes and ears on the field,' he said. 'As we speak, history is proving us right. To put it in baseball terms, we have a batting average of 1,000, which is no small feat. Why didn't the directors listen more? Why did we always have to fight to make our voices heard?'
In previous testimony this week, Pelletier testified that, among other things, his audit team had raised several red flags with the board of directors regarding potential shortcomings and cost overruns before the launch of SAAQclic.
Pelletier would like a 'much stricter' director appointment process, not one based solely on references.
He also called for greater independence of the internal audit department from the SAAQ CEO. Pelletier suggested that the head of internal auditors report to the legal department rather than to senior management at the administrative level.